So, as I mentioned above, I gave the secret handshake and got my bike parked in the secure car park under the office building in the morning yesterday. Only problem was I clearly didn't know the secret handshake to get out of the underground car park on my way home last night so I was standing at the roller door pressing buttons and looking like an idiot to no avail. I ended up having to exit via the fire door and almost stacked it going down the two stairs out of the fire door (as I was clipped in on one side at the time and was trying to hold the door open whilst wheeling the bike out so that the bike didn't get hit).

Apparently there is a button somewhere to open the door, but I didn't see it last night. I'll try again tonight. Fool me twice and all that. I will not be defeated by a roller door!

Nice morning this morning. Uneventful and lovely ride. Bit chilly, but I do like the cold.

Around the Bay on Sunday. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend (yes, I'm ignoring the fact that I have to get through Friday first) !

Had to start early this morning so was on the road with noone around. I think over my 10km journey I saw about 10 cars and 12 bikes, very unusual for Ballarat, the roadies even said good morning to me! I nearly fell off my bike from shock when that happened. Usually the roadies around here ignore me.

Gotta watch those roller doors Summer, never know when they'll go up and down. I worked out of a different office for a while and the bike park is in the car park area, that roller door just wanted to kill people i think. lol. I prefer my current setup, ride to work, wheel bike into office, park in stall next to me, sit at desk.

First commute from my new far-away place this morning, in honour of my workplaces R2W breakfast, and first "real" ride after 6 weeks downtime due to a persnickety spine. 29.7km, 1:18:06. Egg roll & free shirt, w00t! Body: So far so good. Vertebrae did a lot of snap, crackle and pop rolling & stretching after but I think I'll survive

The legs were okay for this morning's commute after Sunday's 50km ATB ride. I went for a run this morning with not many issues (although the first half of the 50km I wasn't pushing as I was riding at my mum's speed, which was slow) - I must have used different muscles. Hopped off the bike on the way to work to press the pedestrian signal button to get the lights to change (although that ended up not being needed as a car rolled up to the lights 20 seconds after I got there) and as I stepped over to get off the bike I put my calf onto the chainring so got a lovely huge black grease stain on the back of my leg.

I was feeling tired on the way in, but I can still pedal, so it isn't the end of the world.

had some saddle problems during the brissy to gold coast ride which stopped me from riding home. rode the flat bar today and my sit bones are in a different spot (different saddle) which means it's not an issue.

Friday's ride was pretty much kept to minimum distance for the places I needed to be. Pretty knackered after last week's weather in Melbourne.After a beautiful weekend, the weather is taking a turn for the worse again, but at least I had a dry run in this morning. Not so sure about this afternoon though.

I did a 54Km ride yesterday - first time in nearly 4 years I've ridden that far. Expected to be sore and sorry this morning but all is good. It was slower ride to work than normal as I decided to take it easier after yesterday's slog.

I approached a lump that was in the middle of the gutter bike lane on Collins St just before Swanston Street (there were cars on my right waiting for the traffic light to change meaning they weren't moving), only to realise that the lump was a possibly still alive pigeon (it was twitching). I couldn't let it remain in the middle of the lane to be run over later so I pretty much prevented the taxi behind me from going on the green as I bent down and picked the poor thing up and gently put it on the side of the footpath. The taxi didn't seem to mind too much. Poor little pigeon.

Get to the bike cage yesterday afternoon and see the rear tyre is looking somewhat deflated. Curse inwardly and wheel the bike up to the cage on the next level where there is a floor pump. Inflate, look/listen for any sign of puncture, but don't discover anything. Had to meet Mrs TW for a follow up appointment to last week's - jason - you'll enjoy this one - so decided to chance the ride there (only about 5km) and toss the bike into the back of the car for the trip home after the appointment. Karma, eh? Grand total of 5km yesterday afternoon. Found the source of the slow puncture (I think) - wasn't a penetration of the SMP, but there was a tear in the rim tape under a spoke, and somehow a pinhole puncture had resulted in that spot. Patched the tube, and stuck a bit of duct tape over the rim tape.

Checked in on the bike first thing after getting up, tyre still inflated, good. Cool conditions, a bit of drizzle into the CBD, but otherwise uneventful. Will check on the bike at lunch time to make sure there aren't any other issues with the tube.

TailWind wrote:Had to meet Mrs TW for a follow up appointment to last week's - jason - you'll enjoy this one - so decided to chance the ride there (only about 5km) and toss the bike into the back of the car for the trip home after the appointment. Karma, eh? Grand total of 5km yesterday afternoon.

This morning there were bicycle police at the tram stop on Macarthur St (between the old Treasury and Parliament). So I decided to be a busy body and tell them that instead of booking cyclists who failed to stop for the tram (not that I saw anyone doing that as I went past), maybe they should move 50 metres further up and book each and every single motorist that stops in the 'keep clear' section at the cyclist black spot intersection (St Andrews Place) just before the pedestrian lights. (The intersection that has actually had a cyclist fatality, not to mention I've had some near misses and I've seen an accident and a few near misses there. It was modified to introduce this extra keep clear section so that right hand turners could actually SEE cyclists coming down Macarthur, not that I've ever seen motorists actually keep clear). I don't think they cared (I said to them "Hey, if you want to issue more TINs, there is a keep clear section just up there that motorists regularly ignore.")

Summernight wrote:This morning there were bicycle police at the tram stop on Macarthur St (between the old Treasury and Parliament). So I decided to be a busy body and tell them that instead of booking cyclists who failed to stop for the tram (not that I saw anyone doing that as I went past), maybe they should move 50 metres further up and book each and every single motorist that stops in the 'keep clear' section at the cyclist black spot intersection (St Andrews Place) just before the pedestrian lights. (The intersection that has actually had a cyclist fatality, not to mention I've had some near misses and I've seen an accident and a few near misses there. It was modified to introduce this extra keep clear section so that right hand turners could actually SEE cyclists coming down Macarthur, not that I've ever seen motorists actually keep clear). I don't think they cared (I said to them "Hey, if you want to issue more TINs, there is a keep clear section just up there that motorists regularly ignore.")

Saw a screw on a quiet back road this morning, and doubled back to collect it (flats are no fun in a car either). Just as I found it again, a taxi came along but it slowed down to wait for me (instead of trying to run me over which was quite nice), and then I held the screw up and got a wave in respone Hopefully he'll keep being nice to cyclists as a result

Got through 20 of my 29km and ditched onto the train because things were starting to hurt. I would say that my body has gone to pudding with my recent outage, but most puddings are relatively structurally sound, I guess I am blacmange now Oh well, baby steps.

Discovered a system failure on arrival - ooh ah, forgot my bra ... fortunately, goodness knows how long ago I apparently forgot to take one home (Kl-assay!). So I can still take the stairs, yay.

Enjoying my new commuter that I almost forgotten to check in here. Will try to figure out how to mount the cameras so I can start recording videos again. Happy commuting to all!

Back to the topic... rare flat tyre last week when I went the long way home. Pain in the ass to remove/re-install rear tyre but manages to repair the flat in less than 15 minutes. Inflating the tyre using one of the smallest pump is no so fun though!

Yesterday, I took it a bit easier than usual on both commutes, in recovery from a personal best of the Yarra Boulevard loop on Sunday.

I also planned to take it easy this morning. But with a surprising slight tailwind, I found myself hitting 40kph on much of the MYT and decided to maintain the pace all the way to work. I arrived with a PB at 34.6kph average including the last few km in the CBD.

98octane wrote:Yesterday, I took it a bit easier than usual on both commutes, in recovery from a personal best of the Yarra Boulevard loop on Sunday.

I also planned to take it easy this morning. But with a surprising slight tailwind, I found myself hitting 40kph on much of the MYT and decided to maintain the pace all the way to work. I arrived with a PB at 34.6kph average including the last few km in the CBD.

Very nice!

I had my first go at listening to Map My Ride talking to me for my journey - it tells you your split speed every km.

Not as fast as I have been, but still decent - Heidelberg to CBD at an average of 22.5km/h

Another torrid afternoon for me yesterday. After the drama with a puncture the previous day, I was happy to see a fully inflated rear tyre when I got to the bike cage yesterday afternoon.Had a chat with Steve from Nomad Cyclery, who runs a mobile bike service from his cargo bike and was busy servicing someone's bike in the cage. Headed off towards Flinders St, stopped at a red light at the bottom of Russel St. While still stationary, there was a sudden loud bang that sounded like a firecracker going off.Looked around, didn't see anyone acting suspiciously, looked down at my rear wheel ...arrrgh....'twas my tube that blew.Remembering Steve was still at the bike cage I jogged the bike back up the road and Steve offered give me a hand with a new tube. Thanks Steve.

Fitted with a new tube, I had resolved to take a shorter route home as I was running out of time, and it had just started raining in Melbourne. However, riding through the parking garage, I bumped into a colleague of mine, also just leaving on his bike. Decided to ride with him along the Yarra, so I ended up doing the MYT through to Chandler Highway anyhow. Took to the road from there through Ivanhoe, Heidelberg etc. Solid drenching on the way home, so some time was spent drying and cleaning kit upon arrival.

This morning had me heading straight into the rain again, but I had hopes that the rain would taper off during the ride....which it did, 3/4 of the way into the CBD. Got pretty wet again, but dried off mostly, just socks and shoes were still damp.Hopefully they dry out and this afternoon is a little kinder as far as the weather goes.

TailWind wrote:Headed off towards Flinders St, stopped at a red light at the bottom of Russel St. While still stationary, there was a sudden loud bang that sounded like a firecracker going off.Looked around, didn't see anyone acting suspiciously, looked down at my rear wheel ...arrrgh....'twas my tube that blew.

Punctures in the rain are unpleasant. Getting a hand is a bonus! Did you find the cause?

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